TALKING TRASH
D PRESS ~ 1998 ~ SANTA ROSA

COVER ART BY GAELA MORRISON




FLATLINE
        for Sito


it has a pulse
it has a smile

someday, we'll get down
to the core

it's a short distance
but a long way



MANEATER


hard to conceive
          or praise
                   what could be
perfect content
          hard to be
                   content
with form only
          a sphere, a cube
                   or what is the Sphinx
target practice for his nib's troops



FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS


so wrong and so right
crude and too perfect

whatever
basically, what does
"whatever" mean, anyhow?

tap gently and keep moving



HEAVY ARTILLERY


I'll listen to your unhappiness
I'll even hand you a towel
but I'm not going to E.R.
because of a broken heart

I had a love like that
and one's enough
I would just as soon forget
the way she walked



ONCE I'M UP TO SPEED ON QUARK
        for Sam


after the first 10 to the minus 43rd second
a new layout to the Universe
a bouncing bubble, a ball of strings

a hundred things to delight
fountains, flags
a butterfly of gas in flight



BACK TO THE REAL WORLD


the bills, the boss, the stress
walk the line

walk the dog, wash the car
push the cart, prune the bush

"hello, hello, something wrong?
something on my face?"



MORNING


what's before emptiness
nothing
I have words for

I pull back the curtain of the sky
and enter
the mirror that is

the World of Nun
chaotic and watery, without sun
pack your bags, Tinkerbell



NOON


long afternoon in my rose garden
long evening in the infinite shadows

long afternoons, longer evenings
I listen, I listen, I listen

long-stemmed beauty
we seem to get nowhere



AND NIGHT


a summer night
moonlight

we are in a very old garden
dreamkisses free and easy

I love you, but what to do

this is a dream where I awake
saying, "This is a dream"



DARK MATTER


we drift in infinite space
or no space

illusion of oneself in an obscure
place
a floating reflection

nothing holding us up



AND THE TREE OF LIFE ALSO


I go to the shore and sit
I become limpid blue sky

seaweed seaspray
seagulls and sand

dry wet high low
empty full fast slow

bored blissed



FIVE ABSTRACTS INSPIRED BY MARK ROTHKO


i

"O, God, let me out of this world; I can't live like this, hurting the one I love."


ii

yellow
>>>>>>red
>>>>>>>>>>>and red

a gesture of friendship
something
in lieu

of taking a trip
or going for a walk
with you


iii

two crash dummies
what>>>>>>>>we
feel>>>>>>>about
>>>>courage
>>>>dignity
>>>>>>>>>>and
>>>>>>>>>death


iv

a suit coat neatly hung on
a kitchen chair before
a black canvas against
a white wall (prepositional)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>exit stage right

something gone
and then its value
resonates


v

a wonderful moment
transported from doubt to joy

m>i>r>a>c>l>e>m>a>g>i>c
h>>>>>o>>>>>>P>>>>>e
e>>>c>>s>>>t>>a>>c>>>y

oblivion
caught off balance
>>>>>>>>>can you feel the
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>impact?



VACUMEGENESIS


out of nothing
comes a spark

energy mind
adam's apple

cheekbone and elbow
light just happens

a gunsel outdraws
his shadow



TELECOSMOS


the sunrise
beyond the actual sun

is a song you sang
along the San Juan

a canticle of water and air
a riff of iridescence



NUTCRACKER
        for Lulu


everyone listen up
this is a beautiful woman

this is a beautiful woman
so I sing

there's something special
about her toes

and she knows
she has those toes

she points to a pair
of point shoes

and I catch a reflection
of her smile

and forget
what I've got going



CUTTING A SWATH


an old man pushes his wheelchair
and a clothes basket down the hall

he is slowly advancing to the laundry
with a plastic bag of soiled diapers

and with him the whole world comes



MORE LIGHT


my father gulps air
jaw slack, hands astray
in front of the TV
sound on full blast

he can't make out the words
but the music helps him sleep
it's Ida Lupino Month on TCM
May and December

his 75th Masonic Anniversary
at the Luther Burbank Lodge tonight
proud he can walk to the East
worried he won't remember the Word

how to tie his tie is a real mystery
his first car, a 1916 Buick
I drive into the fire
to help him



PICTURE FROM WILLIAMS
        for Jane


she did a painting, which in
keeping with the spirit was to be
a red wheelbarrow
          rain-drenched
          with chickens
no fuss, straight up

finally, tore the sky
          into four pieces, each
          had a line of verse
and framed the botched wheelbarrow
and too bright interpretation of
chickens with sewn on feathers
by thumbtacking it to a stretcherbar

so much depends upon
that first cup of coffee



To Volume 3, Book 5